Posted tagged ‘Public Relations’

You may have heard the news: Peyton Manning, who missed the 2011 season with a neck injury that many thought could threaten his career, has signed a contract with the Denver Broncos to be the team’s next starting quarterback. This is great news for Broncos fans everywhere because they haven’t had a popular starting quarterback since the John Elway days, right? Wrong…

After taking over a struggling 1-4 team, quarterback Tim Tebow led the Broncos to victory after victory last season, struggling for the first three quarters before “Tebow Time” took over late in the game. With an offense that quickly transformed into an option attack, and a defense that kept every game close, the Broncos eventually won the AFC West title. Tebow was also a major reason the team won their first playoff game in electrifying fashion against the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime.

The signing of Manning has caused some dissatisfaction in Denver and throughout Bronco Nation. The so-called “Tebowmaniacs” are demoralized at the loss of their savior and Tebow himself can’t be too happy with his sudden departure from the team that he resurrected last season, although you would never know by speaking with him. Even after signing one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Elway (now an executive with the team) has left a fan base divided, and this isn’t likely to change any time soon.

While Manning has the potential to lead the team back to the playoffs this season, one has to wonder how much of an injury risk he remains. Should something happen to the new face of the franchise, could we be looking at a potential PR nightmare in Denver?

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And what about Tebow’s new team. On paper, the New York Jets acquisition of the quarterback would appear to be a slam dunk for their fans. Already one of the most popular athletes in the world, Tebow brings his marketability and football skills to the center of the media universe. This situation has the potential to put him in LeBron James territory when it comes to his marketing value. But what does his acquisition do to the chemistry of the team? If he becomes the starting quarterback, will Tebow have the leeway to struggle as he originally did in Denver, while playing in the #1 television market in the country?

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Right now, the Jets now have the equivalent of two starting quarterbacks in Tebow and Mark Sanchez. The team just signed Sanchez to a three-year contract extension last week, a move that was met with a mixed reaction from Jets fans that have waited since 1969 for a return trip to the Super Bowl. Sanchez is 27-20 as a starter in the regular season and has a 4-2 record in the playoffs. Like Tebow, he’s led multiple game-winning drives and who can forget that he’s defeated Tom Brady and the New England Patriots three times over the past three seasons (something no other quarterback in the league has done). Will diehard Jets (and Sanchez) fans revolt if the coaching staff hands the ball over to Tebow as the starting quarterback in 2012?

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Whether its comments by Coach Rex Ryan, or issues involving players and/or fans, the Jets always seem to be in need of a PR makeover. Now, Tebowmania is about to sweep New York and one has to wonder what that means for the city. The team has always needed a “good guy” who can lead the team back to its glory days. Will the arrival of Tebow be the new incarnation of “Linsanity” that Jeremy Lin brought to the New York Knicks? Or are we looking at a quarterback controversy that will bring on a PR nightmare in New York?

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From a public relations standpoint, both the Broncos and Jets will be interesting to watch this season. You have to wonder what happens to the Broncos if Manning gets hurt. How quickly will the backlash come from the fans? How soon will you hear the “I told you so’s” from local sports writers? How will the Broncos be able to save face?

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And what about the quarterback situation in New York? Will Tebow be the starting quarterback? What about Sanchez? If Sanchez starts the season as the team’s quarterback, and struggles, will the coaching staff be forced to make an immediate change? What if he plays well? Will fans still demand increased playing time for Tebow?

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Both camps are walking on thin ice right now with fans due to their recent moves. As with any trade, the sky’s the limit for the potential. Who knows? The signing of Manning and trade of Tebow could end up being great for both franchises. But, if something goes wrong, you could easily be looking at a major PR nightmare in both cities.

Relationships are key in our daily lives. For those of us who have chosen PR as our career, building relationships with the media is our lifeblood. Positive inclusions in a newspaper, magazine or on a key industry blog can help put our clients name on the map, as well as increase their revenue. As PR professionals, it is our job to make this happen.

But, you need to understand that generating positive coverage for your client isn’t about blasting mass emails, press releases or untargeted pitches out aimlessly. In reality, most journalists will tell you that there is nothing more frustrating than finding their inboxes filled with irrelevant pitches from PR professionals. To avoid this, don’t repeatedly spam them with information they can’t use. You need to be a reference that they can come to for help and to make this happen, you need to build a strong, ongoing relationship.

Here are four tips from my experience in working with journalists that will help you to succeed in building a strong relationship with the media:

Be Sure You Understand Their Outlet

Before developing your pitch, you need to first understand the outlet you’re pitching. As I mentioned before, nothing can be more irritating to journalist than to receive off-base pitches while they are under the pressure of meeting a tight deadline. As PR professionals, we must understand each of the outlets that we work with, as well as how they are structured and their timelines for story development. Take the time necessary to familiarize yourself with the outlets and stories that your targeted journalist typically covers to ensure that your client is relevant. Fully understanding who and what they cover will go a long way towards building a long-term relationship.

Always Personalize Your Pitches

No one likes impersonal communication. Make sure that you take that extra couple of minutes with every encounter you have with them to personalize your interaction. I highly recommend that you read up on what the journalist has recently covered and incorporate this you’re your pitch or general follow up. Keeping your pitch personal will let the journalist know that you understand their coverage area and is key to building a relationship. Also, every interaction doesn’t need to be a pitch. I’ve found that just checking in with a journalist to let them know that they recently wrote an interesting article can be very beneficial in the relationship building process.

Don’t Bait and Switch

Journalists are always on deadline and they don’t have time to play games. If you pitch a story, or source, that they are interested in, be sure you can deliver. Nothing can sour a relationship with a journalist faster than failing to meet their expectations by promising an interview with your clients CEO and then having a marketing director on the call. The same goes for story pitching. If a journalist goes into a call expecting one thing, and you turn around and talk about something completely different, chances are you might not get a second opportunity with the journalist.

Saying Thank You Goes a Long Way

After a story featuring your client appears, don’t forget to say thank you. This doesn’t have to be a long-winded, gushing letter. It could be a sentence or two that lets the journalist know that you appreciate the time and effort he or she put into the piece. This simple act of appreciation can be the difference between continued coverage with a journalist or not. Whenever a journalist covers one of my clients, I always send a short note thanking them for their time and offering the client up as a source for future pieces. This shows appreciation for their hard work and I for one know that it’s nice to be acknowledged. I’m sure they do too.

Those are a few recommendations that I have from my personal experience. Do you have any other tips that work for you? How do you build strong relationships with the media? Please leave your thoughts below.

My colleague at McGrath/Power Public Relations has an interesting post up today which takes another look at the so-called “New Journalism” and Tackable, a social journalism platform launching in partnership with the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune and 31 other newspapers across the San Francisco Bay Area.

Pitched recently by a former co-worker and journalist Luke Stangel at an SVNewTech Meetup, Tackable epitomizes citizen journalism. And based on the response they are getting from the likes of the Mercury News and other top tier news outlets, there seems to be some real promise here. By their own words, Tackable is designed to give you a live look at everything happening in your city, right now. Connect instantly with people witnessing what you’re interested in. News organizations use the platform to write better articles, faster.

A very interesting blog post by my colleague Katie Peterson at McGrath/Power Public Relations today surrounding changes to Facebook policies affecting both business advertisements and personal accounts.

Facebook is turning our Facebook status, personal opinions, and information into advertisements. While I understand there is controversy around the subject because there is no user “opt out” option, and some claim that it is an invasion of privacy, from the business perspective, Facebook’s latest marketing tool is ingenious. In my opinion, and one that may not match that of my colleagues, I think the sponsored stories are actually very beneficial.

If you’ve ever attended CES then you know that the show has grown exponentially since its early days. There’s nothing quite like getting more than 140,000+ of your closest friends together in Las Vegas for 4 days of the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos from some of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. Each year, months of hype lead up to the show. Who’s going to be there? What are they going to be demonstrating? What’s the big, new “it” product? And this year was no different.

Quite a few major technology trends emerged from this year’s show floor that are sure to keep me busy throughout 2011. Some of the significant topics of discussion included the launch of dozens of new tablet devices, wireless 4G LTE and enhanced connected television technologies.

And if you thought that CES had lost its luster and prestige…think again! Last year was a major down year in terms of attendance for CES. But, it was the large crowd at this year’s show that caught the attention of many in the media:

“I must’ve gotten the following question fifty times in the past few days: what’s the coolest thing you saw at CES? Every time, I’ve given the same answer: the crowd…It’s what the size of the 2011 CES signifies about the consumer electronics industry, and about the cultural centrality of a set of devices and issues that used to be the sole province of geeks.” Jon Stokes, Ars Technica

“CES 2011 is back to normal. It was packed with vendors and attendees. The overall tone was extremely up beat… It was fun to walk the floor and see what was on display.” Bill Wong, Electronic Design

There was no shortage of big names at CES. Amongst those speaking in Las Vegas this year were Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Rupert Stadler of AUDI AG, Boo-Keun Yoon of Samsung, Alan Mulally of Ford and Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon. Each gave a Keynote presentation and Mulally used his presentation to unveil the company’s first electric vehicle, the Ford Focus Electric. Did you miss any of the Keynote presentations? Don’t worry…in this day and age you can easily go back and watch all of them online on the CES website anytime you like.

We talked trends coming out of the show earlier, and in 2011, there was no shortage of hot button topics that everyone wanted to talk about. Here’s what members of the media had to say about what they saw on the show floor:

“From the very first press conference, the main theme from the show emerged: your next smartphone will likely connect to a 4G network. For business use, 4G on your smartphone or tablet means easier Internet back-ups, smooth video chats, and snappier Web viewing.” John Brandon, Inc. Magazine

“This year, the show was all about Android. We ushered in the era of dual-core Androids with LG and Motorola, we celebrated the 4G revolution with LG, Motorola, and Samsung, and we even got a glimpse at how Android works when screen resolution is bumped beyond the all-too-common WVGA, thanks to Motorola. Oh, and a little thing called Android 3.0 Honeycomb is going to transform the way we think about not only tablets, but smartphones too.” Brandon Miniman, PocketNow.com

Larger crowds, 4G and gadgets galore! These were some of the highlights of CES this year. I think we can safely say that the recession appears to be over and if CES is any barometer for the state of the industry, then we’re in for a big 2011!

Did you go to CES this year? What was your biggest takeaway? What was your most memorable moment (at the event…not in Vegas)?

Hey everyone. I’ve had some time to think recently. I’ve had a great time writing this blog for, wow it’s been over 9 months now. I can’t believe how many people have actually stopped by to read the stories that I put up everyday. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 425,000 people have read and I appreciate each and every one of you.

I’m writing this post today because I’ve decided that I’m going to be taking a bit of a break, of sorts, and I’m going to be cutting back a bit on the number of stories I put up each day. I typically post a bunch early in the morning and in the evening. Sometimes you can easily see 15-20 posts a day! But, I’ve found that I want to spend more of this time with my family, my kids and my wife. They’re my life and after spending 8-10 hours a day working, I just don’t have the time to devote to writing so many blog posts.

I have to say, though, that this blog is NOT ending. I”ll still be writing. More than likely, I’ll drop down to 2-3 posts a day, if that. Some days there may be more but, I’m just tired. It happens to us all I’m sure!

I’ve spoken to a couple of you personally over the past couple of days via email to let you know that this is something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. Sometimes, we spend too much time online and not with our love ones. I’ve had the chance to spend all day today with my daughter and it has been SOOO much fun. I’ve had a few issues to deal with on the site here that I just finally had to take care of. I was losing a bit of control of what was being written in terms of comments and I was losing the people who were my daily readers. The ones who kept the discussions going and these people are the ones who I write for because they love the discussion and sometimes the back and forth of opinions. But they were the ones who always kept things tactful and decent. That has always been my goal of this site. To make this a place where anyone would feel comfortable.

For the past few weeks, I don’t think everyone felt comfortable anymore, and I apologize for this. I’ve been so busy that I just haven’t had the time to monitor the discussions to be sure that everyone was respecting the “rules” that I have. Well I can tell you that things should be much better moving forward. Who knows, maybe after a little while I’ll get back to posting more often

But for now, you’ll still see posts, just not as frequent. I’ll still be following politics, sports, music, the Casey Anthony trial and more. But I spend enough time at work everyday working on a computer. I don’t need to spend the rest of the day/night on it as well

Thanks for everyone’s support, stopping by, leaving comments and (for the most part) being respectful to the site. I hope that you’ll continue to stop by and say hello. You’ve got my email address, so feel free to drop me a line or check the blogroll for my other pages (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter). Stop by any of these pages anytime!

The new PR rep for octuplet mother Nadya Suleman filed his walking papers after spending less than a month repping the mom and her supersized brood, Usmagazine.com reported.

“It just got to be too much,” Victor Munoz told Usmagazine.com. “It’s pretty much a free for all over there right now.”

Munoz told the publication he couldn’t get into much detail about his decision to leave but that he planned to meet with lawyers Monday to go over the confidentiality clauses in his contract.

“They are freaking out right now,” he said of the Suleman family. “Not to sound arrogant but those people depended on me for everything. You have no idea what I’ve had to do for these people.”

Suleman, who is 33 and unemployed, said in early February that she lives off of food stamps and intended to use student loans to help finance her 14 children.

“I am providing for my children. I am,” Suleman said on the “Today” show on Feb. 10. “And that will probably run out by the time I go back to school. So I have my won way. It’s an alternative way, but it works.”

Munoz said octomom became greedy during his short tenure as her go-to PR guy.

“Nadya got real greedy. This woman is nuts,” he told Usmagazine.com. “This I can say: What ultimately destroyed the business arrangement was personal reasons.”